MCDM Joins Million Dollar Crowdfunder Club... For The 5th Time!

Matt Colville's MCDM was the first TTRPG crowdfunder to break $2M back in 2018 with Strongholds & Streaming, a supplement for D&D along with a livestream of a D&D campaign. That wasn't the end of the company's record-breaking run, though!

Draw Steel: Crack the Sun finished its crowdfunding run this week with a funding total of $2,617,323, making it the 5th million-dollar Kickstarter from MCDM. Crack the Sun is an official adventure path for the company's Draw Steel TTRPG, which raised $4.6M in 2024.

• Strongholds & Streaming (March 2018) raised $2,121,465.
• Kingdoms, Warfare & More Minis! (November 2019) raised $1,372,685.
• "Flee, Mortals!" - The MCDM Monster Book for 5e (May 2022) raised $2,084,117.
• The MCDM RPG (January 2024) raised $4,600,539.
• Draw Steel: Crack the Sun (January 2026) raised $2,617,323.

Not only does this make MCDM the most prolific member of the Million Dollar Kickstarter Club with a record-breaking 5 entries (closely followed by Hit Point Press and Free League with 4 entries apiece), it is also the second most successful TTRPG crowdfunding creator ever with a combined total of $12,796,129! This whopping total is surpassed only by Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG which raised an eye-watering $14,557,439 in just one single campaign.

2025 saw a slight decline in million-dollar crowdfunders with 7 in total (compared to a high of 11, mid-pandemic in 2021).

 

[Bolongo]

It looks like that calculation of their total doesn't include Crack the Sun?

 

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

Draw Steel: Crack the Sun finished its crowdfunding run this week with a funding total of $2,617,323, making it the 5th million-dollar Kickstarter from MCDM. Crack the Sun is an official adventure path for the company's Draw Steel TTRPG, which raised $4.6M in 2024.

• Strongholds & Streaming (March 2018) raised $2,121,465.
• Kingdoms, Warfare & More Minis! (November 2019) raised $1,372,685.
• "Flee, Mortals!" - The MCDM Monster Book for 5e (May 2022) raised $2,084,117.
• The MCDM RPG (January 2024) raised $4,600,539.
• Draw Steel: Crack the Sun (January 2026) raised $2,617,323.

Not only does this make MCDM the most prolific member of the Million Dollar Kickstarter Club with a record-breaking 5 entries (closely followed by Hit Point Press and Free League with 4 entries apiece), it is also the second most successful TTRPG crowdfunding creator ever with a combined total of $10,178,796! This whopping total is surpassed only by Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG which raised an eye-watering $14,557,439 in just one single campaign.

As @Bolongo says, shouldn't the combined total be $12,796,129?

2,121,465 + 1,372,685 + 2,084,117 + 4,600,539 + 2,617,323 = 12,796,129

 

[Morrus]

As @Bolongo says, shouldn't the combined total be $12,796,129?

2,121,465 + 1,372,685 + 2,084,117 + 4,600,539 + 2,617,323 = 12,796,129

Good catch. They also have a couple of sub-million crowdfunders which are not included in the total.

 

[Von Ether]

Congrats to Matt and his team!

 

[CommodoreKong]

I backed this at the $200 everything physical and digital tier. I’m currently running the Delian Tomb for a group and both myself and my players are really liking Draw Steel. I’m happy to see so much support for Crack the Sun and hope to see more official Draw Steel content for years to come.

 

[popuman]

Brilliant! Congrats!

 

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

Good catch. They also have a couple of sub-million crowdfunders which are not included in the total.

I don't know if this is a complete list of all of MCDM's crowdfunders: MCDM Productions's Created Projects - BackerKit. (I'm a bit confused about the relationship between kickstarter and backerkit. It looks like some projects are listed in both?)

So based on that list, the only crowdfunders from MCDM that didn't hit 1 million are Draw Steel, Roll Power, DICE! ($317,178) and "Where Evil Lives" - The MCDM Book of Boss Battles for 5E ($344,651).

If we include those to the total, we get 12,796,129 + 317,178 + 344,651=$13,457,958, still a whopping $1.1 million short of Cosmere RPG's haul.

(I was secretly hoping that if we added all the sub million crowd funders, MCDM would over take Cosmere).

 

[Morrus]

(I was secretly hoping that if we added all the sub million crowd funders, MCDM would over take Cosmere).

Why, do you get a prize?

 

[Parmandur]

I'm a bit confused about the relationship between kickstarter and backerkit. It looks like some projects are listed in both?

BackerKit started out as a third party company that helped companies like MCDM run their Kickstarters, like with fulfillment and logistics and such. So you would back the Kickstarter, and afterwards BackerKit would be how you communicate with MCDM about your order and customer support. In fact, if you look there is a BackerKit page for the Cosmere RPG, too., because Brotherwise used that flow.

Then they got big enough that Backerkit realized they could cut Kickstarter out of the equation, so now there are pure BackerKit campaigns, start to finish.